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Written by Sam Mondros

You Are Here, released on November 21st, 2020 is a jazz album composed by recent University of Oregon graduate, Austin Hass. Hass composed each of the seven songs on the album, giving the other musicians (also U of O students) lead sheets for them to improvise and further circulate harmonies. The album features a classic quartet: Hass on drums; recent graduate, Garrett Baxter on stand-up bass; third-year, Andrew Silva on piano; and graduate student, Ardeshir (Ardy) Pourkeramati on the tenor saxophone.

Album Review:

The album is consistent and cohesive while displaying a myriad of different moods. Its peaks are complemented by its lows. In its best moments, You Are Here, is an album that displays four great players being deeply in tune with each other. Hass’s composition is bolstered by the combos chemistry and the players’ experience in improvisation.

The first track…

Our DJ's have selected their favorite new albums and reissues of this year!

DJ Dronestream - As Lost Through Collision by Sprain

Easily one of this year’s best. They tastefully blend post-hardcore, slowcore, emo, post-rock, and piercing, wall-of-noise feedback into an incredibly focused, intelligent album. I knew they had potential after listening to their first release, but I didn’t expect them to produce something so fully realized this early on. This is only their first album. If Sprain continues along this trajectory, they’ll be slowcore legends in no time.

Lilyana Rain - For Certain album BIA

This is her first debut album. BIA has been making huge strides in the world of women in hip hop with her unique sound

Judge Rage - Getz / Gilberto (2020 Reissue) by Stan Getz & Joao Gilberto

One of the most important and satisfying albums in jazz history, “Getz/Gilberto” was the introduction to the world of…

KWVA DJ since 1998, DJ Sleeve gives shares his favorite new albums and reissues as well as his honorable mentions. You can tune in and hear DJ Sleeve every Monday from 4-6 p.m.!

NEW IN 2020

Gigi Masin - Calypso - Beach ambient bliss

Alex Dowling - Reality Rounds - Astonishing choral electronics using autotune and other tricks

Nicolas Jaar - Cenizas - Smoky late night club vibes

Rhucle - Middle/Nostalgia - More ambient bliss

75 Dollar Bill - Live At Tubby’s/Live At Cafe Oto/Live At Roulette - Tour de force band pulls out all the stops on their desert blues jams

United Bible Studies - Roses In The Voltage I-IV - Witchy weirdness and folky tunage

Horse Lords - The Common Task - Basically really loud math rock in just intonation

Powers/Rolin Duo -S/T LP - Dulcimer and 12-string ftw

Sault - Black Is - I was late to this, just a great band all around, check it

Written by Sam Mondros

No Hang-Ups is a weekly segment where you can find recommendations for jazz music of all kinds! This weeks album:

The Köln Concert took place on January 24th, 1975, and is eighty minutes in length containing two improvised pieces (the second of which is split into three parts). It has since become the stuff of legends being both the best-selling jazz solo album of all time as well as the best-selling piano album. 

What can be said about a musician like Keith Jarrett? Can words really describe the otherworldly properties that his music conveys? His album, The Köln Concert, is a piece that transcends music and what the accomplished human is capable of when stuck between a rock and a hard place.

The album carries a legend comparable to those heard from intense fans of the Grateful Dead. Ascribing little details for every reason something sounds the way it does. You know that one friend who…

Week of December 1, 2020